Domestic violence is deadlier than all these things (including war)

Domestic violence kills more people than war.

A report from the Copenhagen Consensus Centre released this week found it costs the world $8trillion a year.

"For every civil war battlefield death, roughly nine people are killed in inter-personal disputes," Anke Hoeffler of Oxford University and James Fearon of Stanford University wrote in the report.

In England and Wales two women are killed every week by a current or former partner: that equates to 104 deaths every year.

Looking at recent mortality statistics for England and Wales, released by the Office for National Statistics, that means in 2011 domestic violence likely killed the same number of pedestrians in transport accidents.

It also killed more women than some of these well-known causes or death or illnesses:

Pedal cyclists injured in transport accidents

40 women died

Crohn's disease

94 women died

Bacterial meningitis

60 women died

Acute appendicitis

53 women died

Sudden infant death syndrome

46 women died

Motorcycle rider injured in transport accident

14 women died

Accidental drowning and submersion

38 women died

Exposure to smoke, fire and flames

102 women died

Comparing an estimate of the number of deaths with registered causes of deaths is of course problematic, but this article is about giving an idea of just how common and deadly domestic violence is in Britain. To read more about the statistics, click here.